The scale of the morphine scandal

New figures today shed light on the scale of the scandal we highlighted in Friday’s Unreported World from Senegal.

The morphine shortages we showed there, leaving people dying in pain for no good reason, are being repeated in 80 per cent of the world.

The World Palliative Care Association has taken data from the World Health Organisation and come up with a shocking estimate that 18 million people died in 2012 without morphine. The three best countries, if I can put it that way, in which to alleviate pain are Austria, the USA and UK.

The three worst are Pakistan, Morocco and Mozambique.

Since last week’s programme a number of people have contacted us to say they have witnessed very similar conditions all over the developing world.

A mixture of bureaucracy, ignorance and fear conspires to ensure nowhere near enough morphine is imported for the level of patients in desperate need.

In a country like Pakistan where the raw materials of morphine – poppy – are so plentiful that fact seems especially perverse.

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